Money and Medicine (2012)

Money & Medicine investigates the dangers the nation faces from runaway health care spending as well as the dangers patients face from over-diagnosis and over-treatment. In addition to illuminating the waste and overtreatment that pervade our medical system, Money & Medicine explores promising ways to reduce health care expenditures and improve the overall quality of medical care.

Since 1970, health care spending has grown 9.8% annually, more than twice the rate of inflation. Medical costs now consume 17.3% of our gross domestic product.

The trillion-dollar question is how can we reduce unnecessary medical spending so that we can afford to provide affordable, high quality health care to all Americans? A number of recent studies estimate that a third of all health care expenditures are unnecessary and that eliminating wasteful spending would save over 800 billion dollars a year. Since every dollar of so-called unnecessary spending is a dollar of income to a health care provider, reigning in health care spending is much more easily said than done.

Money & Medicine adopts a unique approach to addressing this pressing medical, ethical, and financial challenge. The film was shot at two world-renowned hospitals - UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles and Intermountain Medical Center in Utah. The dramatic doctor/patient stories the film captures at these two hospitals illustrate the powerful forces driving excessive medical care as well as proven strategies that can reduce unnecessary medical spending, such as improving the coordination of patient care, facilitating shared patient decision-making, and practicing evidence-based medicine.